UN’s Xinjiang report: A stand against China, and chance for justice
The United Nations human rights office took a forceful stand this week against China’s efforts to reshape the global rights agenda, experts say, by releasing a report that finds Beijing has seriously violated the rights of ethnic minorities in the Xinjiang region, including possible crimes against humanity.
The report by the U.N. Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) found “large-scale arbitrary deprivation of liberty of members of the Uyghur and other predominantly Muslim communities” and “credible” allegations of patterns of torture of detainees confined in government facilities.
The long-awaited OHCHR assessment on Xinjiang was released Wednesday despite intense efforts by China, a powerful U.N. member, to suppress it.
China has in recent years increasingly advanced its own, state-centric rights model that prioritizes security, economic development, and a strong, sovereign state.
